Three major dairy industry organizations are celebrating significant victories outlined in the U.S. Trade Representative’s newly released 2026 Special 301 Report, which highlights substantial advances in protecting American producers’ rights to use generic food and beverage names.
The yearly assessment of critical intellectual property challenges facing American exporters emphasizes the current administration’s effective campaign to safeguard U.S. producers’ ability to use everyday terms like “parmesan” and “feta” despite European Union restrictive geographical indication policies. The National Milk Producers Federation, U.S. Dairy Export Council, and Consortium for Common Food Names have collaborated closely with federal officials to challenge regulations that limit widely-used food terminology to specific European manufacturers, essentially blocking American producers from crucial international markets.
“For too long, the EU has weaponized GI policy to crowd out American producers from markets they have served for decades,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “This past year’s reciprocal trade agreements are a sea change, and we welcome USTR’s leadership and persistence in addressing this issue. We encourage the administration to build on this impressive foundation in every remaining negotiation to ensure U.S. exporters are never again shut out of export markets by the EU’s GI misuse.”
“EU GI schemes create a two-tiered system that benefits European dairy producers and stamps out competition,” stated Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “NMPF deeply appreciates USTR’s leadership in addressing the GI restrictions detailed in the Special 301 report as a priority trade barrier. We look forward to continuing this great work with USTR.”
“The EU’s approach to geographical indications is simply a dressed-up trade barrier. It is entirely unacceptable,” declared Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “Too many trading partners have been coerced into imposing barriers on products using common food names. We greatly appreciate the administration’s leadership in reversing this trend, and we urge USTR to build on their great work securing important protections for common names in nine Agreements on Reciprocal Trade signed to date and protect common names in every market.”
CCFN provided detailed feedback to the agency in January, outlining numerous markets where American dairy manufacturers face threats to their common name usage rights, including terms such as “asiago,” “provolone,” and “gruyere.” The organization also participated in USTR’s February public hearing on these issues. Both NMPF and USDEC submitted additional supporting documentation expressing appreciation for the administration’s actions.
The three organizations plan to maintain close cooperation with USTR and other federal agencies to oversee the implementation of reciprocal trade agreements and ensure trading partners honor their commitments to maintaining accessible and reliable market access for American dairy and other common name products.
